Protector of the One Who Protects
by Demona Evernight
Summary: Ok here is the new story it's nothing like the old one so sorry if it disappoints. It may just be a few chapters or I may turn it into something more it depends on how people react to it. No flaming! What if Ichigo had a twin? How would she be affected by what Ichigo gets himself into? Would she survive? Who would save her?
1. Chapter 1

Ok here is the new story it's not gonna be anything like the last one so sorry if it disappoints you. This will only be probably a few chapters long or I may turn it into a full on story with more we'll see how it goes. I own nothing, but my Oc Zanpakto and any ideas I come up with

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When we are born into a family people always say how much we look and act like our parents, how much we resemble our siblings, how uncanny it is and how there's no confusion as to which family you belong to.

I wasn't anything like my siblings...I wasn't like my big brother Ichigo, who could be a real hot head, but always meant well and always took care of his friends and family...I wasn't like my little sisters Yuzu and Karin either, they were complete opposites themselves, Karin was athletic and had a slight attitude especially when dealing with our overzealous father. Yuzu on the other hand was both mature and childish at the same time, she was sweet and motherly and took on more responsibility then someone her age had any right to due to our mother's premature death.

Me...I wasn't very special...I was quiet and shy...I didn't talk to many people, didn't have any friends that weren't my brother's friend first, I couldn't stand fighting even if it was to defend yourself, but don't get me wrong the only thing I hold in common with my brother is I can't just stand by while someone gets hurt...I have to protect them even if it means I get hurt...like him I'd rather it be me instead...it's just how I am. This got me in a lot of trouble over the years, in fact if it weren't for Ichigo I would have probably gotten the crap kicked out of me more often then I did...I might have gotten yelled at less though.

It's also why...when that dark presence came that night I couldn't just stand aside and let my brother fight it alone even if I couldn't fully see it. I don't remember much, but I got hurt. The next few days Ichigo was overbearing, angry and protective, more so than usual and it made me wonder...what happened that night after I blacked out?

Something had changed in him since that night. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I felt like...he wasn't quite my big brother anymore. Oh he still was, but he wasn't ya know? He was different...there was something there that wasn't before and it worried and confused me to the brink of losing it and just asking him, but I didn't. I didn't think he would tell me even if I did ask. Not if it meant I'd be in danger. I worried that he had finally been forced into one of the gangs that bothered him so often, I worried that someone was threatening him or us, I worried and worried.

Over the next few weeks I really didn't get much sleep. Things were just getting stranger around my big brother. Before it started he told me and our sisters that he had been seeing ghosts more often, could that be what was bothering him? And what about that transfer student that had been hanging around him so much lately? As far as I knew he didn't actually know her before hanging out and Ichigo wasn't really much for branching out all of a sudden...I mean he usually had a reason.

During this time that feeling I had been having got stronger, I had always felt presences somewhat like Yuzu only more reliable and I could tell if they were good or bad, I felt heavy around my brother like the weight of the world was pressing on my shoulders, but I had been brushing it off as worry for him. But then I started feeling it elsewhere. At school it was whenever I was near his friends and sometimes around town I would suddenly feel the same dark presence appear and then a few minutes later it would disappear as if it had never been there. I never saw anything so I had been putting it off.

Until something changed...that weird feeling that had been building up in me changed...now I was starting to feel weaker, sicker, frailer, like I was coming down with something. My Father and the hospital couldn't figure out what it was. On top of that the transfer student, Rukia, disappeared and the strangest thing was no one, but Ichigo and his friends still remembered her...what was going on with my brother? Then one night Ichigo didn't come home, at this point I was so sick and in pain I couldn't even leave my bed. It felt like my insides were shredding themselves in a meat grinder...not to be melodramatic, but it felt like I was dying.

And that's when it happened...at first I put it off as me being delirious from the sickness and fever that was ravaging my body, but a man came to my room and explained to me. He told me his name was Kisuke Urahara and he knew what was wrong with me.

"You are Ichigo's twin and therefore the closest to him, like his friends Chad and Orihime you have been tainted by his riatsu, his spiritual pressure. I'm surprised that it's taken this long to effect you so badly I had thought it would happen sooner to tell you the truth." He commented lightly and cheerful

"What's...happening...to me?" I asked between pants of breath unable to ever seem to get enough since I got sick

"To put it simply you are dying." He told me all hints of cheer gone and a serious mask in place "Unfortunately for you unlike his other friends you are not developing your own unique powers like they did. Your soul is trying to reject the tainted parts of itself. Like a body that's antibodies have too extreme of a reaction you are shutting down. In other words your soul is trying to tear itself apart."

I laid there in shock and horror, I was dying and my soul was trying to destroy itself.

"Is there...anything...that I can...do?" I asked almost desperate to hear a positive answer, but dreading that there wouldn't be one, that I would leave my family devastated once again and they would never recover again especially Ichigo

"Hmm. To tell you the truth...I don't know for sure. Usually when a soul begins to tear itself apart it happens in a matter of moments as the soul goes mad and finishes itself from the pain, but you somehow seem to be resisting it. I wonder?" He murmured at the end to himself "In any case the only one who can save you is yourself. In the end it'll be your choice on whether you live or cease to exist. There's nothing in particular that I, or even your brother, can do, though I do suppose I can help you prolong your life...at least for a little while."

"Whatever...it is...do it." I said as firmly as I could letting him hear my resolve

"Alright if you insist, but know it will only give you a few more days. Like I said I'm surprised you've lived this long already. You are living on borrowed time Eri Kurosaki tick tock." He said as he placed his hand on my forehead and then I fell into unconsciousness

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? POV

I roamed this fucked up inner world where gravity ceased to mean anything and all it did was rain on and off never endingly. I thought I had seen every aspect there was...I was wrong.

I had traveled further than I usually bothered to go, after all everything looked the same here just more and more skyscrapers as far as the eye could see, when the scenery final changed. The world seemed to drop off...like I had reached to end of it and instead of being round it was flat and if I wanted I could jump off into the abyss.

Instead I looked around, there had to be a reason this part of the world was like this, the buildings here were more run down like they weren't as cared for or thought about as the ones where I usual hung around and then I spotted it.

There not far from where I stood was a vast chasm and surprisingly enough there was a bridge large and old, but with the same metal city design as the rest of this place.

"Interesting." I murmured allowed to myself

A mixture of curiosity and boredom sent me to investigate this bridge and where it may lead to. After all if this is gonna be my world someday I ought to know everything about it and where it leads to.

I jumped down and upon closer inspection saw that the bridge was in even worse shape than the buildings...at least the parts that I could see, it seemed to stretch on for ages.

I began to cross it slowly, wary of how well it would hold my weight, I was curious, but I wasn't stupid. Apparently though I wasn't cautious enough. The next step I took almost sent me tumbling down into the darkness as the bridge shattered under my weight threatening to take me with it. I sonidoed in order to get clear of the hole only to look back and see there was no hole to be seen.

"Huh, so this bridge has it's own defenses. Just where does it lead?" I asked myself chuckling now more determined then ever to find out what was on the other side

I stayed much more alert this time around and noticed a few...oddities between the traps that would seemingly randomly spring up, closer to where I started was more dilapidated and there were drawings and scribbles like those a child may make. Just what was this thing?

Finally what seemed like halfway across I noticed a extreme change in atmosphere and the appearance of the bridge. It had now faded from hard concrete and steal into frosted glass and spindly silver and it was in much better care then the previous section except for two equally worn paths in the middle and far right of the bridge, like someone had come this way often only to stop halfway across and go back.

It was strange...until the halfway point there had been all kinds of traps and pit falls. Pieces of the bridge suddenly falling away only to reappear after I was past them, falling debris trying to crush me, and the like, but ever since I crossed the halfway point all was still and quiet. It set me on edge.

Then I finally saw it...the end of the bridge and the other side.

"What the..." I trailed off in confusion

Where ever the hell this bridge lead it wasn't anything like the world I had been traveling through. In front of me was literally a world divided in two. On the side I was on was tall grass swaying in a gentle breeze, it was bright, and had such a sense of peace that it almost calmed me...almost. The other side a far way from where I stood was the complete opposite it was dark and everything was dead...like an atomic bomb had gone off and destroyed everything and in the distance I could see what looked like ruins of a once great city. And in the center of it all, split right down the middle between the light and the dark was a tree. One half was alive and thriving like it was the middle of spring and the other side was dead and burnt and scared. The branches reached up making a scooping bowl and floating there a few feet above the highest branches was...an orb. It looked to be about the size of a beach ball, split down the middle like the rest of this world and inside it were two...ghostly lights, one white and one black, each on opposite sides of their color pallet. They seemed to chase each other around and around and around.

"What the hell is this place?" I asked myself glancing around

"What are you doing here hollow?" a voice interrupted my musings

There in front of me was now a woman, lithe and thin with a moderate bust, she was extremely pale with golden blonde hair. She wore a yellow kimono that faded into orange and then a deep red, there was a sun pattern on her obi and tucked into it was a zanpakto half as tall as her.

"Who are you? You're not that old man." I asked instead grasping Zangestu's hilt

"I do not know how you came to be in my Mistress's world, but leave now. You are not welcome here. Especially now." She ordered though her voice was still warm

"Mistress eh? Didn't know King suddenly became a girl." I chuckled drawing my sword, but staying in a relaxed stance

"You do not belong here hollow. Return to your world and never return." The woman ordered again though her hands never touched her sword

"So this isn't King's world after all. Who's world is this?" I asked tilting my head curious

"This world belongs to Eri Kurosaki and you do not belong here." She said now drawing her sword and pointing it at me

"What's wrong with this place? Why is it like this?" I asked her just hoping it'd push her into attacking

"Mistress is...unwell. Her soul is hanging in the balance. Since her twin brother first became a shinigami he has been poisoning her soul, tainting it with his riatsu. And now it is slowly killing her. Her soul cannot take the strain of such different spiritual affinities combining in one being. So now it is tearing itself apart. If something does not change, if one side does not soon win...she will die...and then cease to exist. Her soul will tear itself apart until there is not even enough left to sustain itself. That appears to be her fate." The zanpakto said pointing at the hill

I looked over only to pause in shock, where before there had only been a tree with that weird orb, there was now a girl slouched over with her back to the tree seemingly asleep. But even from here I could see that she was too pale beneath her light brown curly hair. She looked dead even now and yet...

I moved to step closer and get a better look at her only to be block by a sword being held out in front of me. I glanced at the zanpakto to my right to see her face was still a gentle, if indifferent, mask with no indication that she would become violent, but nor would she allow me to get any closer to the girl.

"I cannot allow you to remain here hollow, let alone get closer to my mistress in her weakened state. Leave now before I am forced to cause harm to you and further harm to her." She said her eyes narrowing slightly

"Are you really so desperate to get me to leave that you would risk killing your mistress and yourself?" I asked tilting my head condescendingly this time

"If that is what it takes to protect her...then yes." She said sad, but with an unshakable resolve

"Hm. Fine." I grunted as I replaced Zangetsu on my back "But know I will return and Queen will be mine next time...you can count on it."

I returned to the bridge and crossed again, it seemed that it didn't care what came to King's side it only cared what tried to leave to Queen's...like I said interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

I own nothing but my Oc Zanpakto and any ideas I come up with

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Ichigo's POV

My life had never been ordinary. From the time I was little I was picked on because I was different, my hair was orange and I could see and communicate with the spirits of the dead. I was the oldest of four, though my twin sister Eri may argue that ten minutes shouldn't matter it still made me older and as the older sibling I took my duties seriously. It was my job as their older brother to protect them and while I'm thankful to say Karin and Yuzu, the youngest, didn't often need me Eri was a different story.

She was a bit...weird. She was quiet and soft spoken and she cared too deeply for people. She also got into fights too much for my liking...I can't help, but think she got that from me. Because of my hair I got into a lot of fights. People didn't like that I looked different from everybody else so they thought they'd teach me a lesson. Eri got into fights on other people's behalf. She'd see some kid getting the snot kicked out of them and she couldn't help, but charge in to stop them. She was a pacifist, she didn't like to fight, but to protect someone from harm...she'd do anything.

That's why when a hollow threatened our family she went barreling in. I had to watch as she was tossed aside like she was nothing, blood trailing behind her, and she laid there like a broken doll. For one horrible moment I thought she was dead.

When the soul reaper I had seen earlier that day, who I later learned was named Rukia, took the blow that was meant for me and then gave me a way to protect my family I took it without thinking. I became a soul reaper that night.

Over the next few weeks I learned about how to be a soul reaper and preformed the duties Rukia demanded of me. Everything was going fine...or so I thought. One night Rukia left without me and I followed her only to have to confront two other soul reapers. Some red head and a guy who I learned was her brother. They were there to take her...and I failed to protect her and lost my powers.

I woke up to find some creep laying on top of me and found out that I was in Mr. Hat 'n' Clogs shop, a guy who knew a lot about soul reapers and stuff for being human. I underwent training with him, to regain my powers and become stronger, so that I could go and rescue Rukia from being executed.

When I went to the soul society I didn't go alone, my friends who I learned had gained powers too from being near me went with along with a guy named Uryu Ishida who was a Quincy...whatever the hell that meant I still didn't get it. We managed to get there and after a whole lot of fighting and more training we were able to save Rukia and uncover a plot that was meant to destroy the soul society.

We went home on good terms with the soul society and when we got back to the world of the living we exited IN MID AIR! Luckily for us old Hat 'n' Clogs, Urahara, was waiting for us and we were caught and rode on this weird flying carpet type thing.

While in the soul society I had learned who he really was, he was an ex-soul reaper and though it pissed me off when I first found out I couldn't hold it against him. He helped us after all.

He dropped off my friends one at a time and I was about to get off too until he stopped me.

"Wait Kurosaki-san I have something...I need to tell you." He said gravely his hat shadowing his eyes

"Hm? What is it I gotta get home too ya know...ah crap Eri's gonna have a cow! I didn't tell her I was leaving!" I yelled about to jump off and run the rest of the way home

"Hold on their Ichigo that's what I got to talk to you about." Urahara said as he grabbed the back of my shihakusho

"Huh?" I asked looking at him confused

"You know how your riatsu has changed your friends right?" He started not looking at me and not letting my shirt go

"Yeah. It's how they got their powers right?" I answered easily, but wary of where he was going with it

"They got that way from being in close contact with you remember?" He mentioned

"Wait...don't tell me it happened to my sister too!? Does she have powers now?" I asked yelling a bit

"Not exactly." He said looking down and releasing me

"Then...what is it?" I asked now worried for Eri

"Your sister is not like you or your friends. When your riatsu started to influence her's it didn't merge or convert it." He started to explain

"Huh? Then what did it do?" I asked as dread slowly began to creep up on me

"Like I said your sister is very different from you, she was never meant to become a shinigami or anything like one so when your riatsu started leaking into hers it contaminated it." Urahara said darkly

"Contaminated it? What are you saying?" I asked barely keeping from paniking

"Your riatsu is basically poisoning her. In other words...she's dying Ichigo." Urahara stated bluntly

I couldn't say anything and even if I could the words would just get stuck in my throat. Cold fear and dread drenched me and flowed like ice water from my head to my toes and my heart became a stone in my stomach with it's beat sounding all to loudly in my ears.

Dying...my twin sister was dying...and worst of all...it was my fault. I felt sick. I felt disgusted with myself. How did this happen? How did it go from me protecting her...to being the reason she's...

I had to swallow the stomach acid threatening to climb up my throat.

"What...how?" I trailed off pathetically not able to form a full sentence

"I have an idea, but I can't be sure." He answered what little I could get out of my mouth

"Can you save her?" I asked finally getting myself back under some form of control

"No. I can't. Her soul is literally trying to tear itself apart right now. Not even anyone in the soul society could help her now." He answered morosely

"There has to be something I can do! I can't just stand back and watch her...!" I was now yelling at him in desperation clinging to any hope that he could give me

"If there is I don't know it. You'll have to find the answer on your own, but Ichigo...she doesn't have long. It's amazing that she's lived this long most would be gone already." He commented glancing at me from the corner of his eye

"I won't let that happen. I don't care what it takes I'm going to save her...even if it kills me." I said darkly my hair shielding my eyes

"Then I wish you luck...you're going to need it." Was all he had left to say

After that I ran home, I just couldn't get there fast enough. What if she dies? What if I don't make it? What if I can't save her? What if? What if? What if? Ran through my head as I picked up the pace faster and faster. I was angry. At myself and her and the world right now. Why her? Why did it have to be her? It killed me inside that it was her and most of all that it was my fault...it was me that did it to her...and now...she could...

I got home in record time and went straight to her room to find her sleeping. She was breathing heavily like she couldn't get enough air and she was paler than the last time I had seen her. When I got closer I could feel the heat radiating off of her, her fever was that high, and sweat was pouring off her like rain. How could she have gotten so bad in only a few days?

I sat with her for a while after I re-entered my body. I didn't want to leave her alone and I was desperately racking my brain for anything that could save her. Frustratingly enough I realized I had nothing, I knew of nothing, I didn't know how to help her.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, I was in my inner world with old man Zangetsu standing there staring at me intently like usual.

"Huh? What the hell old man? Why'd you bring me here?" I asked him confused

"It was not I who called you here Ichigo." He answered in his usual tone of voice

"Then who..." I was cut off by that voice

"Kiiiiinnng." He rasped his voice echoing all over the place

I looked in every direction only for him to appear behind me a few feet away.

"You! Just what the hell do you think you're doing summoning me here!" I yelled at him pissed off and scared in equal meassure

"Mostly because I could, but there was a reason." The hollow gloated

"Yeah well get on with it would ya I don't have time for you my sister" I started yelling at him

"Queen's dying I know." He said smugly cutting me off

"Huh? What did you call her?" I asked shocked and confused

"Your sister, she's the Queen you know. She is the prize I will take when I finally get rid of you and take over your body." He answered grinning sickly

"You stay away from her!" I yelled pointing my zanpakto at him

"But I can't have her if she's dead that's why I brought you here." He stated like I hadn't said anything

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked him still pissed

"I can save her." He told me looking at me intently

"You can? Why would you want to do that? What's in it for you?" I asked not trusting him

"Didn't you hear me? She's the Queen, the prize, the end goal. A King needs a Queen after all doesn't he? I save her and she'd be mine." He said to me like I was stupid

"No way! Over my dead body!" I yelled refusing

"More like over her's, but your's would be much more agreeable." He said excitedly

As much as I hated to admit it he was half right, but that didn't mean I would just let him get away with it.

"Just tell me how to save her and I'll do it myself." I demanded

"Like always you're so arrogant. Sorry King, but it's something only I can do. You wouldn't be able to. Your a shinigami you'd just wind up killing her faster." He said frowning at the end

"What are you gonna do to my sister?!" I asked him gripping my sword tighter

He smirked wider and started chuckling making the hair on my neck stand up and sending a shudder down my spine. God this guy creeped me out.

"I'm gonna save her isn't that enough?" He asked swinging his Zangetsu and smiling smugly

"No way! You tell me what you plan to do to my sister right now!" I demanded getting seriously pissed

"Fine, fine have it your way King. The only way to save your sister is to add in another riatsu to her original one to strengthen it." He explained sounding bored

"Add riatsu to strengthen hers? Why can't I just do that?!" I yelled at him not quite understanding

"Your riatsu is what's killing her in the first place...remember?" He taunted "If you were to add more she'd surely die."

"Well what about someone else? Rukia, Renji, Orihime, Chad?" I asked grasping at straws

"It would never work for long and your friends wouldn't work at all. They're incompatible. Their riatsu is human, but not, they aren't shinigami so it wouldn't hurt her, but it wouldn't help her either. She's lucky that ex-shinigami was able to lengthen her life at all." He answered

"What? Who? Urahara?" I asked now just confused

"Yeah that's what you call him. Lucky he didn't wind up killing her with that stunt. No instead he forced her into her inner world by, accident I think, where she'll sleep until she disappears from existence." He replied shaking his head

"What do you mean disappears? I thought she was just..." I trailed off still unable to say that she was dying

"Oh she is, but she's also tearing her soul apart so when she does die there won't be anything left. Not even enough to become a hollow." If he could he almost sounded like he was sad to say that

"Why does it have to be you? Why can't it be anyone else?" I asked slowly giving up though I really hated to

"I'm a hollow. I'm the exact opposite of a human and the enemy of soul reapers. If I add my power to your sister's soul it'll merge with what's left of her human riatsu and help it push back your riatsu and the portions that have converted to soul reaper riatsu. It has to be me because I'm a part of you." He explained as though I was stupid

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked getting frustrated again

"You mean you really don't know?" He asked and then laughed hysterically "Oh King this is rich! You don't even know the connection you really have with her do you?"

"What are you talking about now ya psycho?" I asked getting impatient

"Have you ever hear the term one soul sharing two bodies?" He asked instead

"Yea people say that about twins sometimes what about it?" I asked wondering where he was going with this

"Well for some, like you, it's a little more...literal. You see you and your sister have always been linked. A soul separated into two bodies with a single bridge between the two. It's always been there you just never bothered to notice. You never bothered to care enough." He taunted

"What the heck are you talking about?" I asked having no idea what he was even saying

"Why don't you follow me and find out." He said before sonidoing off

I followed him across my inner world for what seemed like forever. Everything looked the same just like always until we came to a spot where it looked like the world ended. I stopped in shock because there it was...just like he had said. A large and old looking metal bridge that looked like it had seen better days.

"What the hell is this? Where did you bring me?" I asked him my voice full of confusion and shock

"I told you this is the link between you and your sister's soul. A bridge between your inner worlds." The hollow explained calmly, but sounding annoyed and bored

"When did this get here? And how come I've never seen it before?" I asked him

"Like I said it's always been here waiting for you to come you just never did. You've never traveled your inner world like me and the old man have so you never had a chance to find it. You didn't even want to so it didn't reveal itself." The hollow said crossing his arms

I went to get a closer look, was it real? Had this bridge really been here this whole time? It looked neglected, like someone had just forgotten about it after it had been built. It didn't look safe to cross...then I noticed it. What had looked like graffiti from a distance were actually childhood pictures I had drawn with Eri as a kid.

"So this is real?" I asked no one, but the hollow hmmed in confirmation anyway "I can cross and save my sister."

"Hang on there King...not so fast." He said grabbing my shoulder and stopping me from stepping further onto the bridge "I can't let you do that. You can only go halfway across until you get into her soul. You cross that line and she's as good as dead."

"What are you talking about now?" I asked getting real tired of his secretive crap

"You leak riatsu wherever you go remember? I doubt you've learned to suppress it. You go into her soul like that and she'll die almost instantly and drag your soul and me with you. I'm going alone and I'll save her and maybe...just maybe when her soul's stable you can visit us." The hollow said smugly teasing me

"What do you mean us? You're leaving as soon as she's better ya bastard!" I yelled

"That's the thing King. Unless you want Queen to die I've gotta give her my power and that means staying to keep her soul together and in one piece." He explained to me

That really pissed me off, but I couldn't say anything against it. I didn't want my sister to die and being cornered like this with no way out and no other way to help her and it killed me and pissed me off more. I felt the cold dread of defeat...I was giving in and I hated it...but I wanted my sister to live more.

"Ok." I muttered barely audible to my own ears

"Hm?" He asked surprise coating his voice

"Ok. You win...just save her...please." I said a little louder my head hanging in defeat


End file.
